Edmonton Sun

A Fort Saskatchewan couple claimed a $50 million jackpot Tuesday after buying the winning ticket last December.

Andrea, 47, and Bill Groner, 54, finally came forward a month after the Western Canada Lottery Corporation called on lottery players to check their old tickets.

It turns out the couple knew they had a winner the whole time but made a conscious decision not to wait seven months before claiming the enormous prize.

“We carried on with life, day to day, normal people,” Andrea said.

“We chose not to discuss with people until we knew where we had to be and what we had to do and just get our life in order.”

Andrea bought the Lotto Max quick-pick ticket at Shefield Express in Londonderry Mall on Dec. 20, making the prize the biggest ever won by a ticket sold in Edmonton and the second biggest in Alberta.

“When I checked the ticket, the first thing I should have had was my glasses, because I didn’t have those with me,” she said. “I had to get the retail clerk there to tell me what was said on the self-scanner.

“She was more excited than I was at the time. I was in disbelief.”

Bill had recently retired from his job as a heavy equipment operator, while Andrea is still working as a project co-ordinator at an electrical firm and was planning to retire in December.

The couple has kept on buying tickets since picking the winner.

Andrea and Bill both say they don’t have immediate plans for spending the money, and that they hope to maintain their “normal” day to day lives.

“It’s more money than what one could ever dream of having,” Andrea said.

“We don’t want to rush into anything.”

She did suggest, however, that it might finally be time to take a honeymoon.

“We’ve been married 25 years and we haven’t been on a honeymoon yet,” she said.

Their winning numbers were 2, 13, 18, 24, 27, 37 and 43.

The biggest lottery win in Alberta was a $54.3-million ticket purchased in Canmore in 2005.